ARCHITECTURE: RESTORED HARLEM WOOD PORCHES

Harlem Bespoke: The city's landmark commission oddly pointed out that the wood structures such as the original porches were missing at the Riverside Drive Abolitionist house but this observation was rather moot.  One could probably observe that most of the landmark buildings with exterior wooden architectural elements probably at one point or another had decaying or damage parts replicated and replaced.  Wood is durable to some extent but time eventually adds too much character and a total replacement is needed. 

One of Harlem's oldest residential home at 17 East 128th Street looks brand new on the outside but this sort of pristine condition does not happen with wood parts left to the elements for over 100 years.  Then one can look at the profile of the stairs and wooden doorway portico roofs at Sylvan Terrace or those perfect profiles on Astor Row to discover that these too are probably replicated parts.  With that said, the 857 Riverside Drive definitely can have these parts added back on and it the history is really the most important factor here: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2021